February 1923

February 1, 1923 (Thursday)

• The first nationwide "football pool" in the United Kingdom, a legal betting pool for gamblers betting money on the outcome of soccer football matches, was launched as bookmakers John Moores, Colin Askham and Bill Hughes created the Littlewood Football Pool in Liverpool. Only 35 out of 4,000 printed betting coupons were sold for the first trial of the wagering service.
• The Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, the Italian Fascist Party's "Blackshirts" paramilitary organization, began operations as a government-supported militia. Field Marshal Emilio De Bono, a retired Italian Army general and one of the Fascist Party organizers, became the Blackshirts' first commander.
• Mexican troops stormed the headquarters of streetcar operators that continued to hold out on strike after the majority of them had returned to work. A shootout ensued in which 14 of the strikers were reportedly killed.
• Inflation worsened in Germany as the mark dropped to 220,000 against a British pound.
• Died: Ernst Troeltsch, 57, German theologian

  February 2, 1923 (Friday)

• Bulgarian Prime Minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski survived an assassination attempt carried out by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. Stamboliyski would live for four more months before being overthrown on June 9 and then kidnapped, tortured and killed on June 14, 1923.
• Striking railway workers in the Ruhr began returning to their jobs as German resistance to the French occupation faltered due to the coal blockade.
• The German drama film Nora premiered in Berlin.
• Born:
• *Liz Smith, American gossip columnist; as Mary Elizabeth Smith, in Fort Worth, Texas, United States
• *Red Schoendienst, American professional baseball player, National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee; as Albert Fred Schoendienst, in Germantown, Illinois, United States
• *James Dickey, American poet and novelist who served as the United States Poet Laureate; in Atlanta, United States
• Died:
• *Manuel Murguia, 89, Spanish Galician journalist who founded the Real Academia Galega
• *Robert Leonhardt, 50, Austrian-born American opera singer

  February 3, 1923 (Saturday)

• A magnitude 8.3 to 8.5 earthquake struck the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Soviet Union, generating a twenty-five foot tsunami that raced across the Pacific Ocean. The quake caused a series of seven waves over the Hawaiian Islands territory, killing at least 12 people at Kahalui on the island of Maui.
• Sovnarkom, the ruling executive body of the Soviet Union, approved plans to create a civil aviation authority for passenger air travel, which would lead to the foundation of the Soviet national airline, Aeroflot.
• Born:
• *Edith Barney, American baseball player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League; in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States
• *Barbara Hall, British crossword compiler and advice columnist for The Sunday Times; in Derby, Derbyshire, England
• Died: Kuroki Tamemoto, 78, Japanese general

  February 4, 1923 (Sunday)

• The Conference of Lausanne broke off in failure as Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary was unable to get Turkey's İsmet İnönü to reach a compromise. Curzon left that night on the Orient Express.
• French troops expanded their occupation of Germany to include the key railway centers of Offenburg and Appenweier.
• Born: Conrad Bain, Canadian television actor and comedian known for his roles in the U.S. sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and Maude; in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
• Died:
• *Prince Fushimi Sadanaru, 64, Field Marshal of the Imperial Japanese Army who, as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal from 1912 to 1915, served as the top adviser to the Emperor
• *William H. Thompson, 70, Scottish-born American stage actor who left Broadway in order to joint the vaudeville circuit

  February 5, 1923 (Monday)

• Mohamed Tawfik Naseem announced his resignation as Prime Minister of Egypt, along with his cabinet. More than five weeks would pass before a new government could be formed by Education Minister Yahya Ibrahim Pasha.
• Australian cricketer Bill Ponsford made 429 runs to break the world record for the highest first-class cricket score for the first time in his third match at this level, at Melbourne Cricket Ground, giving the Victoria cricket team an innings total of 1,059.
• The Canadian province of Quebec held a provincial election. The Liberal Party led by Louis-Alexandre Taschereau retained its majority.
• Born:
• *Fatmawati, the First Lady of Indonesia from 1945 to 1967, the first woman to serve as President of Indonesia, and designed the red and white Flag of Indonesia; in Bengkulu, Dutch East Indies
• *Jack Murphy, American sportswriter for the San Diego Union whose lobbying led to major league sports teams to bring franchises to the area; in Denver, Colorado, United States
• Died: Count Erich Kielmansegg, 75, Austrian statesman who served briefly as the Minister-President of Austria within the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1895

  February 6, 1923 (Tuesday)

• The crown of Georgia's last monarch, Giorgi XII, confiscated by Tsar Alexander I of Russia in 1801 after the Kingdom of Georgia's annexation into the Russian Empire, was returned by the Soviet Government to the Georgian State Museum in Tbilisi. Officials of the Georgian SSR would take the crown from the museum on April 23, 1930, and has not been seen publicly since then.
• At the opening of an air conference in London, Director of Civil Aviation Sefton Brancker predicted that within five years, an airplane would be able to travel from London to New York in just twelve hours.
• Born:
• *Marshal Alexander Yefimov, Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Air Force from 1984 to 1990; in Kantemirovka, Russian SFSR
• *Ben Leito, Curaçaoan economist and politician, served as the Governor of the Netherlands Antilles from 1970 to 1983, later a member of the Netherlands Council of State; as Bernadito M. Leito, in Willemstad, Curaçao
• Died: E. E. Barnard, 65, American astronomer, for whom Barnard's Star is named

  February 7, 1923 (Wednesday)

• The General Treaty of Peace and Amity, 1923, was signed in Washington DC between representatives of the Central American nations of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The five nations pledged that they would not give recognition to any government in the area that came to power in any manner other than a peaceful transfer of power. Only three nations would ratify the treaty.
• The musical Wildflower, with book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II and music by Herbert Stothart and Vincent Youmans, opened at the Casino Theatre on Broadway for the first of 477 performances.
• Born: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, director of the Royal Opera House, chairman of the board of the English National Opera, managing director of the English National Opera North, president of the British Board of Film Classification, and member of the extended British Royal family; in London, England
• Died: Kristine Marie Jensen, 65, Danish housekeeper and author of the popular cookbook ''Frøken Jensens Kogebog''

  February 8, 1923 (Thursday)

• An explosion killed 123 miners at the Stag Canon #1 mine in Dawson, New Mexico when a train jumped its track, slammed into the supporting timbers near the mine entrance, and touched off an explosion. Some of the victims were the sons of men who were killed in a 1913 mine disaster at the same site.
• A gas explosion killed 33 men at a mine near Cumberland, British Columbia.
• The Irish Free State proclaimed a 10-day amnesty for rebel Irish republicans, granting them a chance to surrender without consequence, after Liam Deasy, the Deputy Chief of the Irish Republican Army, had been captured and persuaded to issue a statement urging other rebels to surrender. Richard Mulcahy, the Minister of Defence and commander-in-chief of the Free State Army, sent a notice that said. "Bearing in mind Liam Deasy's acceptance of the immediate unconditional surrender of all arms and men, the Government offers amnesty to all in arms against the Government who will surrender with their arms on or before Feb. 18."
• Norman Albert called the first live broadcast of an ice hockey game, the third period of an Ontario Hockey League Intermediate playoff game on the Toronto station CFCA.

  February 9, 1923 (Friday)

• Billy Hughes resigned as Prime Minister of Australia after his National Party lost its majority in the December 16 elections for the Australian House of Representatives and he was unable to form a coalition government. Hughes's successor as National Party leader, Stanley Bruce, forged a coalition with the Australian Country Party, whose leader, Dr. Earle Page, accepted the job of Treasurer of Australia.
• Turkey withdrew its demands for foreign warships to leave the Smyrna Harbor, notifying the British and French navy admirals that it would maintain the status quo until the matter of occupation could be resolved through diplomatic means. An ultimatum to withdraw ships from the harbor had expired at sunset the day before, with no indication from any of the Allied powers that they had any intent to move any of the vessels.
• The Soviet Russian airline Aeroflot was founded, six days after the Sovnarkom had approved an expansion of the Red Air Fleet, and began operations under the name Dobrolet.
• An uprising at Lukyanivska Prison in Kiev killed 38 prisoners and one Red Army soldier.
• The entire German town of Recklinghausen went on strike against French occupation.
• Born: Brendan Behan, Irish playwright and novelist; in Dublin, Irish Free State